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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/25353700">i know you've flirted with me before (but i didn't get it right, can i try again)</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/fancyfanstuff/pseuds/fancyfanstuff'>fancyfanstuff</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Supergirl (TV 2015)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>But Kara's oblivious, F/F, Fluff, Fluff and Crack, I just had a lot of fun writing this :D, Lena Luthor Knows Kara Danvers Is Supergirl, Lena's blatantly flirting, Texting, obviously</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-07-18</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-07-18</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-20 08:00:29</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>3,480</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/25353700</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/fancyfanstuff/pseuds/fancyfanstuff</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>
  <em>As she’d forced her eyes away, cheeks aflame and hands suddenly sweaty around the cotton sweater she was still holding, she’d caught Lena’s gaze, dark and sparkling with amusement and something else. And Kara should have known, should have pieced things together like she was piecing now, heart racing, fingers trembling with the possibility of it all.</em>
</p><p> </p><p>Aka, Lena is blatantly flirtatious (TM) and Kara Doesn't Get It.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Kara Danvers/Lena Luthor</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>61</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>733</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>i know you've flirted with me before (but i didn't get it right, can i try again)</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><ul class="associations">
      <li>For <a href="https://archiveofourown.org/users/cautiously_optimistic/gifts">cautiously_optimistic</a>.</li>



    </ul><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>Hey peeps,<br/>so here it is, my first Supercorp story. For those of you who are fellow Swen - don't despair, I will still write SQ fic, no worries! For those of you who are here for the Supercorp - I'll probably write more fic about them too, cause it's just too perfect a ship to resist.<br/>Anyway, this fic is here for a very particular reason: it's a gift for my tumblr... Acquaintance? Friend? Not to be overstepping, but she's pretty cool - anyway, this is a birthday gift for @c-optimistic on tumblr, cause she's one of my favourite writers in the fandom, and I like her. Here's to you, may you have a wonderful day, and I hope you enjoy this crack hole of a fic!<br/>Also, for the rest of you, enjoy! ^^</p><p>P.S.: Obviously, the title is taken and adapted from that amazing comic I'm sure we all know. My excuse: 1. It's such a good quote. 2. I suck at titles and my other option would have been "pieces (like breadcrumbs, on the trail to cognition)" and we wouldn't have wanted that.</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>If it weren’t for Alex, Kara would have never found out. And if she had never found out, she wouldn’t be in this entirely confusing situation now. So, obviously, it was now Alex’s duty to fix this… whatever this situation was. Since it was her fault. Obviously.</p><p> </p><p>And okay – Kara was still adjusting to this particular fact – maybe it was a little bit Lena’s fault too. For starting it all. Weeks ago, back when summer’s grip on National City had still been deadly and even Supergirl hadn’t been able to save the city from that foe. When the air had been dry like the deserts of rural Krypton but much much warmer, so warm that citizens and criminals alike sought shelter in AC-cooled buildings, sticking to their various day jobs, voluntarily working overtime just to escape the heat for another few minutes. Or that was what Kara supposed anyway; she didn’t really know what criminals did during the day, and if they even had jobs or if they’d rather used the money from their last haul to invest in super-shades, to keep the relentless sun out.</p><p> </p><p>Oh yes, Kara mused, leaning back in her couch cushions now as she recalled the past. The first incident - the original sin, so to say - had happened shortly after L-Corp had released their super-shades on the market, multifunctional curtains that reflected up to 98% of all incoming UV-light. Lena had been offering to give her a discount, but Kara had gracefully (for her standards) declined. <em>Krypton</em><em>ian</em><em>s</em>, she had texted her friend, <em>don’t pass up on free yellow sun, but thank you very much.</em> <em>Maybe Alex </em><em>is</em><em> interested – </em><em>she’</em><em>s</em><em> complained about being too hot for days</em><em>. </em><em>Laughing-tears-face, s</em><em>miley-face, kiss-face, pink pulsing-heart.</em></p><p> </p><p>Kara finished most of her messages to people she cared about that way, and it hadn’t been the first time she’d objected Lena to her emoji-flood habits, she had checked. Frantically, multiple times, to see if the fault lay with her after all, but no. Just a couple of days prior to this, she had sent the blush-and-giggle-behind-hand emoji as a reply to Lena’s compliment on her latest article for CatCo Mag. And a week before that, there had been three kisses in a row for when Lena had proposed Chinese take-out for lunch. So, really, there was little explanation for what had happened after the shades. None, in fact, unless Alex was right, and Kara was the most oblivious alien alive.</p><p> </p><p><em>Speaking of too hot</em>, Lena’s reply had popped up seconds later, <em>can I get your opinion on the dress I want to wear for the press conference tomorrow?</em> <em>Smirk-</em><em>smiley</em>.</p><p> </p><p>In retrospect, Kara thought, the smiley had felt a bit out of place in a casual conversation. Not that she had noticed then, typing out a quick <em>Sure</em> and not thinking twice about it. Not even when the photo had come in, of Lena in a low-cut crimson dress that clung to her figure like Kara’s hands had clung to her phone, gaping and, for the first time this summer, starting to feel the heat that everyone was complaining about.</p><p> </p><p><em>Oh yeah</em> , she’d typed out, her fingers curiously shaky so that she missed a key. <em>Oh yeay</em>. She remembered chuckling nervously at her own stupidity; embarrassing, a reporter unable to write a two-word message without a typo, just great. And all the while, the picture had hovered there, plastered across the screen as she tried to form a more meaningful reply.</p><p> </p><p><em>*h. –</em> <em>You look great in it</em> – <em>Definitely wear that to the conf.</em> – <em>As for the too hot, I think you’ll be fine</em> – <em>The dress seems summer-y enough, I don’t think it will be too warm</em> – <em>Plus, the interview should be inside so... –</em> <em>Sweaty-smiley, You should be fine.</em></p><p> </p><p>A series of quick texts, fired out in rapid succession before she’d paused to look for Lena’s reply. A single second smirk-smiley – coming from Lena, two emoji on one day was as rare an occasion as a solar eclipse on Krypton (not as uncommon as on Earth, due to Daxam’s close proximity, but still uncommon enough to justify festivities) – had hovered above three constantly vanishing and reappearing dots for an excruciating eternity, before Lena’s text had come through.</p><p> </p><p>
  <em>Will CatCo send a delegate? </em>
</p><p> </p><p>It had been a curiously short text for such a long time of writing.</p><p> </p><p><em>I think James planned to go himself</em> , Kara replied, <em>taking </em> <em>Mackenzie maybe, dunno</em>.</p><p> </p><p><em>Too bad</em>. Lena was back to her usual quick typing. <em>I had hoped for some Super-brand freeze breath to cool me down, should matters become too heated. </em></p><p> </p><p>And then, a few seconds later: <em>The dress has a nice back cleavage for just that purpose</em>.</p><p> </p><p>
  <em>You have a custom-made freeze breath dress?? Laughing-tears, tongue-peek, red-heart.</em>
</p><p> </p><p><em>What can I say, Kara? I’m rich</em>. And with a last winkey-face – three emoji! – Lena had excused herself to a meeting, leaving Kara grinning and barely fighting the urge to scroll back up to the photo.</p><p> </p><p>She was looking at it now, snuggled into her favourite blanket, a mug of slowly cooling cocoa by her side. Outside, it had begun to snow, wistful flakes, settling on the streets, pavements, and roofs of National City, quietening the constant roar of the city to a dull distraction on the edges of Kara’s consciousness. Five months had passed since that first unusual text exchange, time that was reflected in the shorter hair of Lena-in-the-picture, light-kissed in the morning glow of her apartment.</p><p> </p><p>It was an unusually beautiful photo, Kara thought, messier than the promotion pictures the press regularly made of Lena brandishing yet another brilliant invention. Messier, she mused, but also somewhat carefully composed, deliberate in the casual hand in her hair, the way she’d settled down in the brightest spot of her bed. The sun made her eyes flicker with mischief and something more, something that Kara had not allowed herself to see until now. Something that maybe, Alex insisted, Lena had wanted her to see all along.</p><p> </p><p>Kara’s brow furrowed as she scrolled through the conversation one more time. If she remembered correctly, Lena hadn’t even worn the red dress to the press conference after all. At that time, Kara had accredited that fact to the thunderstorm that had threatened to befall National City the next day, towering dark clouds rumbling with the threat of rain that Lena had chosen to go with a longer, more sensible dress. Now she wondered if that hadn’t been the reason at all, if there was another cause for the minuscule frown settled on Lena’s face in every photo from that day.</p><p> </p><p>No, she chided herself, grounding her thoughts with a big sip of cocoa; now she was just being crazy. Alex’s words had gone to her head, biasing her view, making her over-analyse the most trivial matters. Unless… She bit her lip, thumb hovering above the home button, wondering, debating. Unless she wasn’t. Being crazy, that is, biased. After all, Lena had never asked her advice in fashion before, making this incident weird, out-of-the-normal, noteworthy. Pointless too, since Kara – according to a multitude of people, among them, notably, Cat Grant – couldn’t even be trusted to put together her own wardrobe.</p><p> </p><p>Lena, as Kara very well knew, didn’t bother with pointless actions. Which meant that there had to be another reason to her question – and all similar questions that came after, opinions on dresses and blouses and hair styles and<em> Do my </em><em>eyes look okay to you, I haven’t slept much – They’re beautiful, don’t worry, see-no-evil-monkey</em>, including more and more emoji each time, smirks and winks and –</p><p> </p><p>
  <em>I bought new bras yesterday, which one should I wear</em>
  <em>?</em>
</p><p> </p><p>Kara’s thumb, scrolling through the chat history, stilled. She could hear her own heart rate speed up just a little as she remembered that day in late August. The day of the thunderstorm.</p><p> </p><p>Lena had texted her early, 7:38 am said the tag, when Kara had been close to falling asleep over her cereal. Supergirl had had a busy night, a minor hostage situation at the old warehouses and two attempted robberies on money transporters in the wee hours of the morning. It was days like these, her eyes threatening to stay closed each time she blinked, that made her question the double life she’d chosen to lead.</p><p> </p><p>Lena’s message had startled her right out of those bleak thoughts. It had been accompanied by a photo of freshly showered Lena wrapped in a towel, one hand holding the phone, the other one spread, a bra dangling off each of her fingers. Her hair, still wet and darker than usual, framed her face like an underworldly halo, and the smirk she was sporting – needless to say Kara had very copiously choked on her Cheerios.</p><p> </p><p><em>They all look very nice</em>, she’d typed as soon as she could breathe again. As a precaution, she’d avoided looking at the bras too closely – they all seemed unbearably skimpy and already her mind had filled with forbidden images, pictures of indigo cloth on smooth pale skin, of sculpted black lace that revealed more than it covered…</p><p> </p><p><em>Thank you, Kara</em>, the reply had come. In the light of her current investigation, the emphasis on her name sounded playful, flirty even. <em>Is there one you like best?</em></p><p> </p><p>Even now, Kara felt her panic rise at the question, panic and something else, something she was used to quench immediately. <em>Uh……. </em>She had typed, nervous dots lining up as she’d allowed her eyes to sweep over the five pieces of lingerie once. And a second time. And one more – <em>The dark blue one is beautiful</em>. It was the laciest one by far, and it ignited a fire somewhere deep down in Kara’s belly. <em>It</em> <em>seems festive though. Too good for work.</em></p><p> </p><p>
  <em>Who said I was going to work? Winkey-face.</em>
</p><p> </p><p>Kara, feeling flustered and restless, had latched onto that immediately. <em>Oh, lucky you! </em><em>heart-eyes</em><em> – I wish I could take the day off.. – </em><em>A lot of crime-fighting tonight, biceps-flex, red cross, sleepy-smiley –</em> <em>But I can’t miss another briefing, rolling-eyes – Boss’s orders, rolling-eyes.</em></p><p> </p><p><em>I’m sure I could get James to let it slide, just this once</em>. The offer had come immediately, sweet and compelling, and for a second Kara had been seriously tempted to take Lena up on it. But then her morales had gotten the better of her – she had enough of a special status in her other life, she refused to claim a similar privilege at CatCo only because she happened to be best friends with the CEO – and she’d declined before she could change her mind.</p><p> </p><p>
  <em>Thank you, though. Maybe I’ll use some overtime and leave early...</em>
</p><p> </p><p><em>Make sure to be home at 6</em> , Lena had typed as a last message before Kara had had to leave, <em>it will rain.</em></p><p> </p><p>And rained it had. At 6:02 precisely – Kara remembered it well because she’d been so impressed with Lena’s prediction – the heavy cloud cover that had hung over National City all day tore open and released a near unprecedented downbeat. Squall after squall of rain-impregnated air hit Kara’s apartment from all sides, painting stark webs of water on her windows and threatening to seep through the seal.</p><p> </p><p>Kara, at home since four, had sat on the couch in her favourite jumper and sweatpants, headphones on, watching the spectacle. On Krypton, rain had been a rarity, the atmosphere too arid to allow much precipitation to be wrung from it. Even now, after almost fifteen years on earth, thunderstorms both fascinated and frightened her – the rain welcome, the thunder… not so much. The rattle and roar of it, the tearing sound when the atmospheric energy discharged, it all seemed too loud to her sensitive ears to feel comfortable, and too much like the intergalactic turmoil she’d been exposed to in her pod to feel at ease.</p><p> </p><p>She wasn’t quite sure how she had heard the knocking over her music. Maybe Lena had been vehement. Or maybe the door had been open. Either way, Kara had just been thinking of her, when suddenly there she’d stood, soaked to the skin and shivering in the doorway. (The door must have been open, as Kara had no memory of walking over to let Lena in.)</p><p> </p><p>“Hey Kara,” she’d said, and yes, then Kara’d jumped up, all surprise and joy, and a bit flinching at the sight of her sodden friend.</p><p> </p><p>“Lena! What are you doing here, come in, close the door, I’ll make you some tea – “</p><p> </p><p>Lena’d chuckled, a dry sound from her wet lips, and her mouth had pulled up in a genuine smile. “I am sorry for not warning you I’d come dropping by – literally. I was in the neighbourhood when the shower caught me unprepared, I thought I could maybe seek shelter here?”</p><p> </p><p>Kara hadn’t noticed it then – too busy had she been with of-course-ing and nodding and bustling with the tea and asking Lena to store her coat in the bathtub and offering her dry clothes and asking if she was alright – but now it struck her as odd that Lena had been surprised by the shower. After all, it had been her who’d given Kara a very exact prediction of when it would rain, making sure she would be home in time to evade it.</p><p> </p><p>Past-Kara, however, had been blissfully oblivious to the busload of implications Lena’s impromptu visit carried with it. Too many other thoughts had buzzed through her head at the time, as she’d simultaneously boiled water with her gaze and zipped through the apartment to find Lena clothes that weren’t a) used or b) horribly embarrassing.</p><p> </p><p>“Ta-dah,” she’d eventually produced her favourite NCU sweater and matching pants, as well as a steaming mug of Lena’s favourite ginger tea, the one that Kara only stored for her anyway.</p><p> </p><p>“You,” Lena’s eyebrows bobbed once, “are my hero.” And then she’d peeled off her soaked blouse before Kara had a chance to avert her eyes or leave the room or <em>panic</em> because – oh.</p><p> </p><p>Oh, as in there was the bra, the indigo lace one, lace lace lace and very little more; oh, as in it looked so much better even than Kara’d imagined, dark and tantalising and fitting perfectly; oh, as in oh-kay she should really stop staring now.</p><p> </p><p>As she’d forced her eyes away, cheeks aflame and hands suddenly sweaty around the cotton sweater she was still holding, she’d caught Lena’s gaze, dark and sparkling with amusement and something else. And Kara should have known, should have pieced things together like she was piecing now, heart racing, fingers trembling with the possibility of it all.</p><p> </p><p>Alex was right. She had to be, given this new, almost-forgotten evidence.</p><p> </p><p>The image of Lena watching her over tea, small smiles every time Kara’s eyes had inadvertently dropped to her chest, was clearer than ever; it mingled with other, similar snapshots that rose from the depths of Kara’s memory to wash over her in a tsunami of realisation.</p><p> </p><p>Lena, smirking up at her from under her lashes when she asked her to be on her team at game night – “Don’t you think we’d be a great match?” They had lost every single round, but Lena, competitive, ambitious,<em> perfect </em>Lena, had never looked more content than when Kara had blushed furiously at Lena’s elaborate moan during her pantomime rendition of “massage” – even though she’d been suspended from the game for adding sound effects.</p><p> </p><p>Lena, guiding Supergirl’s hand to her chest after she’d been attacked (although she knew that Kara could<em> hear</em> her heart rate perfectly well) – “I told you, I’m fine; see, my pulse isn’t even elevated. It was just my quarterly assassination attempt.” Except there had been a flutter in the otherwise steady thump of her heart when Kara’s fingers had splayed over the generous amount of skin Lena’s dress revealed.</p><p> </p><p>Lena, playing with Kara’s hair that one night when she’d gotten just drunk enough that Kara didn’t like the idea of letting her walk home alone. “This,” Lena had said, snuggling up to Kara with a contented sigh, “is my favourite spot in the universe.” And her lips had been wine-darkened and moving close close closer to Kara’s neck, yet never touching, only hovering.</p><p> </p><p>Lena, angling towards Kara every minute they were together. Lena, listening to every word Kara was saying, always and everywhere. Lena, watching Supergirl with the same softness she was watching Kara, a softness reserved for her and her only. Lena drawing Kara’s gaze in return, not obnoxiously asking for attention but <em>deserving</em> it, her words, her smiles, her touches. Lena, being <em>Lena</em>, and oh, Kara had been stupid, so so stupid.</p><p> </p><p>Her fingers moved over her screen in a daze, finding the keys with a sort of uncanny certainty, as if they’d been waiting to type this exact message for a long time.</p><p> </p><p>
  <em>I understand now.</em>
</p><p> </p><p>Lena was offline, she usually was. It would only be a matter of time though, until she read the text – Kara knew for a fact that she was one of the few contacts Lena didn’t have muted. Instead, she’d been assigned her personal ringtone – part of Across the Stars, the love theme from the Star Wars films – and Rao, how could Kara have been so blind.</p><p> </p><p>She didn’t wait for Lena’s reply. She couldn’t. The force of her revelation had her giddy and restless, and she was in her suit and out on the streets before she’d even had the time to think. She barely had the presence of mind to close the window behind her, keeping the snowflakes out that were dancing in the air around her, settling on her cape and hair as she raced over the roofs.</p><p> </p><p>For once, she had no eye for the streets below her. The clusters of people in colourful hats and coats, the buses and cars that slowly crawled through the traffic, the bustling liveliness of the metropolis she knew and loved – it was all muted, subdued by the snow and by Kara’s own heartbeat, elevated but steady as she flew. Flew towards one of the biggest silhouettes in the distance, towards the sleek glass facade of L-Corp, towards the woman she loved. And she knew Lena would be waiting for her.</p><p> </p><hr/><p> </p><p>(Except she wasn’t. For someone who claimed to be Lena’s best-friend-and-maybe-more, Kara didn’t actually know much about the schedule of the twice-CEO. And so it came that the office she all but crashed into was empty, absolutely deserted safe for one single fluff, slowly floating to the ground in the waft of air Kara had brought with her.</p><p> </p><p><em>Dust</em>, she thought, staring at the grey piece that stained the immaculate perfection of the room. Lena’s office was <em>never</em> dusty. A horrible realisation crept over Kara, the echo of a conversation she’d had with Lena a few days back, when her friend had come over to say goodbye.</p><p> </p><p>“Paris? Aww, don’t make me jealous,” Kara’d said, laughing as if the business journey wasn’t coming at a particularly inconvenient time. Which, of course, back then she hadn’t known, couldn’t even have guessed yet. She almost envied this past-Kara, oblivious and naïve when Lena’d smiled in response.</p><p> </p><p>“You like Paris?”</p><p> </p><p>“I’ve never been.” And okay, maybe some part of Kara had picked up on Lena’s endeavour even then, because she had sort of expected her friend to make a witty comment, like she would have done via text. But real-life-Lena had always been softer than messenger-Lena, shier and somewhat more tentative, and so she’d actually avoided Kara’s eyes.</p><p> </p><p>“Maybe I could take you some day.”</p><p> </p><p>And although Kara hadn’t yet understood what it was that made her heart stumble at those words, she’d found herself returning the smile. “I’d like that.”</p><p> </p><p><em>So much for that</em>, she thought now, and for the second time this evening jumped through an open window into the night that was slowly falling over National City like a comforting blanket. Not that Kara noticed its embrace, too busy was she trying to figure out which way was east, while also fumbling with her earpiece to call Alex.</p><p> </p><p>“Since this is technically your fault,” she said, as soon as her sister had picked up, “it is now your duty to fix it.” And then, while Alex was still cursing – “Damn it Kara, I thought you were in danger or something, what are you talking about?” – she set course towards the sea and sped up.</p><p> </p><p>“Alex, I need you to find out which hotel Lena is boarding at. Oh and also, could you ask Brainy to keep an eye on me and navigate, or else I’m pretty sure I’ll miss Paris entirely.”</p><p> </p><p>And then Kara flew. Flew towards Europe, towards an unknown metropolis that she would undoubtedly get hopelessly lost in, towards the woman she loved. And this time she was certain Lena wouldn’t be waiting for her.</p><p> </p><p>But who didn’t love a good surprise, right?)</p>
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